Politics

Ohio senators have passed a bill to bar schools from using the results of new proficiency tests to determine a student's advancement to the next grade level.

The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday on the legislation, which also ensures that schools don't lose state aid for students not taking standardized tests this school year.

The measure also prohibits using the results of new state math and English assessments to make course credit decisions. It further prevents schools from sharing individual test scores with outside sources without parental consent.

Following his address to Congress Tuesday, Cleveland-area critics and backers of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are speaking out about his warning on Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Members of Congress, including many Republicans, gave Netanyahu a rousing ovation after his controversial address to Congress Tuesday. In his 45-minute speech, the Israeli Prime Minister urged the U.S. to stop any potential deal-making with Iran, expressing concerns it could open a window for the country to develop an arsenal of atomic weapons.

Ohio Democrat Ted Strickland says his run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Rob Portman will focus on expanding job and educational opportunities for average people.

The former governor announced the run, as expected, on Wednesday. His entry adds a formidable statewide name to what is expected to be one of the most watched and expensive of next year's Senate races.

This month History Talk hosts Patrick Potyondy and Leticia Wiggins explore the political climate of a nation that's remained on distant diplomatic terms with the United States though it's only 90 miles away from the U.S.'s southernmost point. But U.S. - Cuba relations could be in for a dramatic change since President Obama's mid-December announcement.

A doctor in Ohio says the mayor of Toledo is still in critical condition a day after he suffered cardiac arrest while driving during a snowstorm.

The mayor's condition hasn't changed and he remained heavily sedated Monday.

Mayor D. Michael Collins has been in intensive care since he was found unconscious after crashing his SUV into a utility pole Sunday. Two passers-by broke out a window to reach the mayor before performing CPR.

His doctor says it's too early to know the timing or likelihood of his recovery.

Ohio’s Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown is grinding the ax of tax reform in advance of Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Brown wants to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) under a proposal he’s calling the “Working Families Tax Relief Act.”

Ohio lawmakers have finally come to a bipartisan agreement on redistricting that many are calling historic. The process of drawing lines for legislative districts has been controversial in the past, but an agreement passed in the Senate Friday will be sold to Ohioans as a way to make that process more fair.

“This is the most significant bi-partisan activity that I have been involved in in my time here in the House and the general assembly,” said Democratic State Representative Vernon Sykes, who’s leaving after 26 years in the statehouse.

Antioch College President Roosevelt and former Ohio Governor Bob Taft are both the great-grandsons of American Presidents. Roosevelt's great grandfather was Theodore Roosevelt, President from 1901 to 1909. He was succeeded by William Howard Taft of Cincinnati.

The relationship between the two men is chronicled in The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, published in 2013. They two were allies; Taft served as Roosevelt’s Secretary of War, but later clashed and Roosevelt ran against Taft in 1912.